AHL: Worcester Sharks' Travis Oleksuk overcomes slow starts

Travis Oleksuk has never had to worry about a sophomore slump, or any sort of sophomore jinx at all.

It's his freshman year that sometimes gives him trouble.

"It's always been that way," the Sharks' second-year center said on Wednesday. "Wherever I go, whenever I move up to a new level, it takes me time to get going. It can be frustrating, and last year was a frustrating year for me."

No amount of telling himself not to let it happen again has made much difference for Oleksuk.

It just takes him a while to get up to speed. The Sharks knew his history when they signed him out of Minnesota-Duluth in 2012, so last year's slow start was not entirely unexpected.

Nor is this season's improvement.

Oleksuk had 13 points in 60 games last season. He has 14 in 40 games so far this season, most of them coming this month.

Since snapping an eight-game point drought with a goal in Providence on Jan. 5, Oleksuk is 4-4-7 in 11 games. He has centered Worcester's most productive offensive unit, with Dan DaSilv a and Yanni Gourde alongside.

"That's been our best line for a couple of weeks now," Sharks coach Roy Sommer said. "They've really carried us. Now we need a couple more lines to step up, too."

In 2006-07 with Sioux City of the USHL, Oleksuk had 22 points. He had 44 the next year. As a freshman at Minnesota-Duluth in 2008-09, Oleksuk had five points in 18 games. As a sophomore, he had 24, as a junior 33, and as a senior 55.

"For me, it's a matter of experience," he said of his offensive uptick this season. "Confidence, too. When you know your coach is ready to put you out there in any situation, that can't help but boost your confidence."

Oleksuk always has had substantially more assists than goals, although this season is different since he already has more than doubled his goals total from last year.

"He doesn't get enough pucks to the net," Sommer said. "He should shoot more and not pass it so much."

Oleksuk has heard that before and is working on it. Still, most of his goals are on deflections and rebounds, and most of his points come from setting up a linemate.

Oleksuk, who turns 25 next week, grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, future home of the Winnipeg Jets' AHL affiliate and former home of ex-Sharks goalie Carter Hutton and legendary AHL tough guy "Battleship" Bob Kelly, among others.

"It's a great hockey town," Oleksuk said, "and I think the team will do really well there. There's been talk about it for a few years and everybody's excited."

Oleksuk's goal is to play in the NHL, not for his hometown AHL team. A few more months like this one would help make that a reality.

Tough to beat a Comet

Utica Comets goaltender Joacim Eriksson is Player of the Week. He went 3-0-0 with a 1.31 goals-against average and .953 save percentage as the Comets extended their winning streak to four games. Eriksson is the first Utica player in nearly 21 years to be Player of the Week. Jarrod Skalde won the award on March 16, 1993. The last Utica goalie to win it before this was Sharks goalies coach Corey Schwab on Nov. 3, 1992. Of course, Utica was out of the league for most of the gap. … The league added three players to the All-Star roster — St. John's defenseman Brenden Kichton, Albany forward Joe Whitney and Hamilton goalie Dustin Tokarski. … Not only is losing a franchise in midseason a logistical nightmare for a hockey league, it's plain embarrassing, as happened with the San Francisco Bulls. The last time it happened in the AHL was way back in 1977-78 when the Hampton (Va.) Gulls departed on Feb. 10, 1978. … Sommer was involved in a franchise fold — the Albany Choppers of the old International Hockey League. In their first and only season, 1990-91, they went under in February. Sommer, an assistant coach, remembers players drag racing to the bank with their paychecks because the checks would bounce if you didn't get there early. Oh, and the leading scorer on that team before it folded? Yves Heroux, who three years later would score the first goal in the city's AHL history.

On this date

The IceCats exploded for one of their biggest road victories in history by walloping the Bruins, 7-2, in Providence in 1998.

The Bruins scored first on a goal by Shawn Bates, but Worcester scored the next seven.

Brent Johnson got the win in net for the IceCats, while eccentric Swedish goalie Olie Sundstrom — he made his own goalie equipment and even his first name was eccentric — took the loss before being lifted in the second period.

Defenseman Nick Naumenko was 2-2-4 for Worcester, partner Terry Hollinger had three assists, and Lubos Bartecko was 1-2-3.

Smokin' dessert?

Anyone else out there hear the interview with the Blackhawks' Michael Kostka when Chicago and Detroit played on national TV last week? Kostka was asked about the strangest experience he had playing in the minors, which he did for several seasons, and replied that it happened in Worcester when he was ordering his postgame takeout meal. The dessert choices were pie, ice cream or a pack of cigarettes. Kostka was here as a visitor with Portland and Norfolk. … A scoring change has resulted in Yanni Gourde tying a Sharks record for assists in a game. He got one in the 6-3 victory in Portland that originally was credited to Oleksuk. That gives him four for the game, tying a mark achieved several times, most recently by Danny Groulx on Feb. 26, 2010. … Worcester's shootout success this year is an amazing turnaround. The Sharks are 7-1 (.875) this season and were 25-43 (.368) heading into the year. "And we don't practice them this year," Sommer said. "Last year, we practiced 'em all the time." That helps compensate for their long overtime drought. Worcester does not have an OT goal since Jan. 11, 2013, when Nick Petrecki beat Springfield, 4-3 — 82 games ago. The Sharks have gone into OT 20 times since and lost six of them. Their overtime drought is at 81 minutes, 49 seconds. … Bridgeport is 4-2 since Ryan Strome came back from the Islanders, and Strome is 1-6-7 in those six games. … Portland has played three in a row that went into overtime since being smoked by the Sharks, 6-3, up there two Tuesdays ago. On Saturday night, Strome's goal at 19:42 of the period tied the game, but the Pirates lost it in a shootout. The next night, Manchester won, 3-2, on Linden Vey's goal at 4:58 of OT.

Catching up with...

The argument can be made that Craig Conroy had the best career in Worcester hockey history, even if it was a short one.

Conroy was assigned to the IceCats late in 1996 after being acquired in a trade with Montreal and played five games in a Worcester uniform. He was 5-6-11 and plus-3 in those games, then was called up to St. Louis and never skated in another minor league game, although he played in 996 more in the NHL.

On Sunday, Conroy returned to Worcester for the first time since December 1996 on a scouting assignment in his role as an assistant GM with the Calgary Flames, accompanied by former IceCats coach Steve Pleau.

"I didn't recognize the outside of the place," Conroy said of the DCU Center, "and I didn't know we were here at first. When I got inside, though, it all came back to me."

Conroy skated on a line with Scott Pellerin and Jamal Mayers, the three eventually totaling 2,440 NHL games among them.

Aside from lighting it up on the score sheet, Conroy's memories of his short stint here included, "I was here for the Christmas skate. It was a great party."